Month: August 2016

The weather dealt Staly’s 2nds a large blow to their promotion chances, with just 5 weeks and 4 games to go in the season, todays against 2nd to bottom Chapel-en-le-Frith was a must win to ensure Brian Stone’s men were to keep in contention for a promotion spot, with 3rd place Hollingworth playing 4th place Mottram, two of the three teams we’ll have to face before the season ends, with top of the table Hazel Grove being the last day of the season.

Rain, rain, go away…, and don’t come again, if you don’t mind!

A fifteen minute delay to the start of the game meant both teams would start 2 overs short, and Chapel only manage to field 8 players, a win, if the game completed seemed a very likely outcome, unfortunately the Derbyshire weather had other ideas, causing the game to be stopped after just 6 overs, and the stopwatch started; by 3:30, tea was called early, to hopefully allow a change in the rain, and all the while we were in-doors, the sun happily shone through the black clouds taunting us with sunny spells, but as 4 o’clock came round and the players took to the field, the heavens opened again, without a ball being played, bringing the players straight back off.

Knowing Stalybridge needed a result, the captains held on as long as possible, but with 21 overs now reduced for the home sides’ innings, and patience from the players rapidly dwindling, the umpire finally made the only possible decision and to call the game, leaving both sides with seven points each, and the vain hope the Hollingworth vs Mottram game finished in a similar manner.

Next week sees the 2nds with a break, due to the odd number of teams in the league, but the following week, an away trip to Hollingworth.

With Brian doing his usual sleight of hand with the coin-toss, he put Stalybridge into bat to try and maximise points, being a point behind Mottram CC at the start of the day, who don’t play today due to the odd number of teams in the league, despite a slow start, with only 26 runs on the board after 15 overs, albeit down a decent performance from both openers, it was the introduction of James Beswick at #4 that made the difference to the innings, managing to survive 27 overs to finish the innings 64 not out, the main other notable performance of the innings was from Extras, who managed 30, due to a large number of wide deliveries from the Offerton bowlers, with the full 45 overs complete, Stalybridge had put 183 on the board, for 6 wickets, with Offerton openers Karl Martin and Imran Solail, managing 2-40 and 0-23 respectively for their full 12 overs each.

Just four balls into the Offerton innings, James Beswick dismissed opening batsman Karl Martin for 0 and his opposite counterpart Jim Senior only survived 10 deliveries before suffering a massive back spasm, which saw him caught behind by keeper Joe Robinson, however 30 minutes later an ambulance had to be called for Jim, due to his being in such pain and unable to move, everyone in the the 2nds hope he’s ok, and wishes him a speedy recovery.

With nine straight maidens from Beswick and Pete Coxon, it took until the 10th over before bat touched ball to generate runs, the next 4 wickets fell to Pete Coxon in quick succession and a protracted batting performance from #3 Imran Solail was kept to just 13 runs from 80 balls, before being dismissed by Gary Sandiford, but it was his final strike partner Tony Davies who contributed most to Offertons innings with 37 before being caught at slip by Alex Wilde, the visiting side then doggedly frustrated the Stalybridge bowlers hanging on for the remaining overs to finish the match 107 for 9 denying the home side maximum bowling points.

The result sees Stalybridge move up into second place in the league table, at least until next week, which sees them head back into deepest, darkest Derbyshire to take on Chapel-en-le-Frith.

I was hoping to have had the electronic scoreboard in place for the 2nd to last home game for the 2nds, but delays with the metal-work meant it will only get one game this season, before being put into storage.

Mudi gets a 5fer in his last game for Stalybridge and Bez has a decent knock.

Being the club-man that I am, I chose to spend my birthday not with my football team Stalybridge Celtic, celebrating a 1-0 win on their opening game of the new season (mainly because they were in Boston, Lincs. tbh) but with my cricketing buddies again in deepest Derbyshire, on a lovely summers day, chilling out in a little stone and wood hut for a few hours.

The game started, with Brian and his magic coin winning the toss and electing to bat, at a sedate pace, with the same openers from last week, but a moment of indecision saw Alex Wilde taking the option of being run-out sparing Mike Whitworth at the other end, last weeks big scorer Joe Robinson came in but sent one skywards to be caught by Ashley Sharp; his dismissal saw the arrival of James Beswick who saw off the rest of the Stalybridge innings 66 not out, while the rest of the Stalybridge batsmen came and went, with only Madussar Bashir hitting 35 from 17 deliveries being notable, his first 7 balls being . 6 6 . . 6 6 peppering the cows in the adjacent field, with Brian Stones “dubious” LBW decision, (I’m sure he’ll show you the bruise on his abdomen if you ask nicely), Stalybridge’s innings came to an end just 7 runs short of maximum batting points on 193.

After tea (double helping of cream and strawberry scones – ommnom), Birch Vale suffered early wickets with both opening batsmen falling before the 3rd over, but the arrival of RAF PE Instructor Ashley Sharp, with a bat that had more middle than me, saw the major threat Birch Vale had to offer, and it was blatantly obvious to all present that his removal would be key to the result, thankfully the steady hands of keeper Mike Whitworth got his first of three catches from Mudi with the faintest of nicks off Sharp’s tree trunk bat on 31, to the delight of the Stalybridge contingent. Once he was gone, it was just 11 runs and 5.3 overs before the remaining 5 wickets fell to Messrs. Bashir (6-27) and Beswick (4-42) ending the host side’s innings on 74, really pleased Mudi got his 5fer, as it is his last game for Stalybridge St. Paul’s as he starts a new job with British Gas on Monday, we all wish you well matey, you’ll be missed (though not by his opposition no doubt), and I’m sure you’ll be welcome back anytime.

So we headed back to Stalybridge for a few tins just in time to see the 1sts beating Birch Vale’s 1sts in the corresponding home fixture. Well done lads.